Method and system for designating and handling confidential memory allocations

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for designating and handling confidential memory allocations of virtual memory. In particular, the operating system provides a memory allocation flag that applications may use to indicate any arbitrary area of physical memory marked with this flag may contain confidential data and should be handled accordingly. The operating system also ensures that memory allocated with this flag can be placed in physical memory. When freeing up memory, the operating system protects any data in the memory allocated with this flag. For example, the operating system may prevent the confidential memory from being swapped out to storage or from being accessible to other applications, such as a debuggers. Alternatively, the operating system may encrypt any data in the confidential memory before it is swapped out to storage.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to computer memory management. More particularly, the present invention relates to designating and handling confidential memory allocations.

BACKGROUND OF THE RELATED ART

Memory management is one of the most fundamental issues of modern computer systems. Typically, a computer system will include a hierarchy of memory that ranges from a small, fast cache of main memory that is placed in front of a larger, but slower, auxiliary memory. The cache is generally implemented using a physical memory, such as RAM, while the auxiliary memory is implemented using a storage device, such as a disk drive or hard disk. Both memories are usually managed in uniformly sized units known as pages.

In order to improve performance, many computers and operating systems today implement virtual memory for the applications running on the computer. Virtual memory is where the computer system emulates that it has more memory than the computer system actually physically possesses. For example, most computer systems utilize 32-bit processors. Hence, a computer system is theoretically capable of providing a virtual memory of approximately 2³² bits or approximately 4 Gigabytes, even though the physical memory is usually much smaller.

In order to provide a virtual memory of this size, the computer system runs the application or process in a memory address space that is virtual, i.e., not tied to the physical memory. The computer system will then swap pages in and out of a cache in its physical memory in order to emulate the virtual memory. During operation, an application or process will continually requests pages using virtual memory addresses. In response, the computer system will translate the virtual memory address into a physical memory address and determine if the page is present in the cache (i.e., the page is resident). When a requested page is not present in the cache, it is called a cache “miss” (or page fault), and the requested page must be retrieved from storage. However, when the cache is full, before a new page can be brought into the cache, another page (known as the victim page) must be evicted to storage.

Many applications running on a computer system utilizes confidential or sensitive data, such as encryption keys, passwords, account numbers, and the like. Unfortunately, as noted above, an application is provided a virtual memory and portions of that virtual memory are actually swapped in/out of storage, which is generally unprotected from tampering. Any data read by a process that was originally encrypted can be found as plain text in swap storage, if the process used data that was swapped out to storage. Moreover, it is possible for passwords and the confidential data to reside in storage for long periods of time, even after rebooting the system. This is contrary to what most users expect, i.e., that all confidential data vanishes with process termination. If the integrity of the system is compromised, an untrusted party may gain access to the confidential data that has been swapped out and retained in storage.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide methods and systems for designating and handling confidential data.

SUMMARY

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, a method of protecting confidential data is provided. When a request to allocate space in a virtual memory for confidential data is received, a portion of the virtual memory is marked as confidential. It is determined if a portion of a physical memory has been assigned for the confidential portion of the virtual memory. The portion of the physical memory that has been assigned for the confidential portion of the virtual memory is then marked as having confidential data.

In accordance with another embodiment of the inventions a method of protecting data allocated to a confidential area of virtual memory that is stored in physical memory is provided. When contents of the physical memory are being written to another location, contents of the physical memory that correspond to data allocated to the confidential area of the virtual memory are identified. The identified contents of the physical memory are then protected.

Additional embodiments of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the figures:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system that is in accordance with embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary architecture of the system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary process flow that is in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention provide methods and systems for designating and handling confidential memory allocations of virtual memory. In particular, the operating system provides a memory allocation flag that applications may use to indicate that data in any arbitrary area of the physical memory allocated with this flag can contain confidential data and should be-handled accordingly. Alternatively, the operating system may place the confidential data in areas of the physical memory that are not directly accessible by bus mastering I/O devices. The operating system also ensures that memory allocated with this flag can be placed in physical memory. When freeing up memory, the operating system protects any data in the memory allocated with this flag. For example, the operating system may prevent the confidential memory from being swapped out to storage. Alternatively, the operating system may encrypt any data in the confidential memory before it is swapped out to storage.

Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the invention, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

FIG. 1 illustrates a computer system 100 that is consistent with embodiments of the present invention. In general, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in various computer systems, such as a personal computer, server, workstation, and the like. However, for purposes of explanation, system 100 is shown as a general purpose computer that is well known to those skilled in the art. Examples of the components that may be included in system 100 will now be described.

As shown, computer system 100 may include a central processor 102, a keyboard 104, a pointing device 106 (e.g., mouse, or the like), a display 108, a main memory 110, an input/output controller 112, and a storage device 114. Processor 102 may further include a cache memory 116 for storing frequently accessed information. Cache 116 may be an “on-chip” cache, an external cache or combinations thereof. System 100 may also be provided with additional input/output devices, such as a printer (not shown). The various components of the system 100 communicate through a system bus 118 or similar architecture.

In addition, computer system 100 may include an operating system (OS) 120 that resides in memory 110 during operation. OS 120 is an integrated collection of routines and programs that service sequencing and processing of programs and applications running on computer system 100. OS 120 may provide many services for computer system 100, such as resource allocation, scheduling, input/output control, and memory management. OS 120 may be predominantly software, but may also comprise partial or complete hardware implementations and firmware. Well known examples of operating systems that are consistent with the principles of the present invention include Mac OS by Apple Computer, GNUILINUX, Java and Sun Solaris by Sun Microsystems, Windows by Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Windows CE, Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

One skilled in the art will recognize that system 100 may comprise various other components, such as multiple processors, additional storage devices, etc. Such components are well known to those skilled in the art.

FIG. 2 illustrates a general architecture of computer system 100 that is in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. As shown, computer system 100 is running a program 200 on OS 120. In addition, OS 120 is providing a virtual memory 202 to support the operation of program 200. OS 120 may utilize inode data stored in the memory management table 204, a page table 206, a resident data cache 208, and non-resident tracking data 210. OS 120 may also be coupled to storage 114 and retrieve various pages that are not stored in memory 110.

Program 200 may be any application or other program that runs on top of OS 120. Such programs are well known to those skilled in the art.

Virtual memory 202 is the memory space in which program 200 operates. As noted above, virtual memory 202 utilizes an address space that is not tied to the physical address space of memory 110. In accordance with the principles of the present invention, virtual memory 202 may comprise a confidential area 212. OS 120 may flag confidential area 212 with a flag indicating that data in this area is confidential and should be protected. For example, OS 120 may use a flag, such as “MAP_CONFIDENTIAL,” to allocate any arbitrary area of virtual memory 202 for holding confidential data. In addition, OS 120 may ensure that confidential area 212 has been stored in memory 110 and not storage 114. Accordingly, memory 110 is also shown storing confidential area 212 in resident data cache 206.

Memory management module 204 is a component of OS 120 that decides which parts of virtual memory 202 are kept in memory 110 in resident data cache 206. Resident data cache 206 is the portion of virtual memory 202 that is currently resident in memory 110. Memory management module 204 may operate in conjunction with other components of computer system 100 that are not shown in FIG. 2. For example, memory management module 204 may operate with a memory management unit associated with processor 102 and maintain several data structures for managing the data that is held in resident data cache 206 and tracking relevant information for program 200 from storage 114. Some of these data structures will now be briefly described.

Page table 208 provides a mapping between the virtual address space of virtual memory 202 and the physical address space of memory 110. In some embodiments, page table 208 may be used in conjunction with a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) (not shown), which are well known to those skilled in art. Typically, page table 208 is accessed by extracting the virtual page frame number and offset of the desired data. The virtual page frame number serves as an index to page table 208 to retrieve a physical page frame number. The physical address may then be determined by multiplying the page size by the physical page frame number and adding the offset (if needed). The use and structure of page table 208 is well known to those skilled in the art.

In some embodiments, OS 120 may be configured to use demand paging. Demand paging is where only pages that are currently use by program 200 are loaded into memory 110 in resident data cache 206.

Resident tracking list 210 is a list that tracks pages accessed for program 200, which current reside in resident data cache 206. In some embodiments, some of the pages may be marked as confidential using the “MAP_CONFIDENTIAL” flag noted above. When free space must be generated, memory management module 204 will evict a page from resident data cache 206 using well known algorithms.

In some embodiments, memory management module 204 is configured to check whether a page is within a confidential area of virtual memory based on the MAP_CONFIDENTIAL flag. If the page contains confidential data, then memory management module 204 may be configured to prevent that page from being evicted to storage 114. For example, in the event of a core dump, memory management module 204 will not dump data from confidential area 212. As another example, memory management module 204 may be configured to skip over data in confidential area 212 when writing data to storage 114 during a transition of system 100 to a power saving mode. OS 120 may also apply other protections to data in confidential area 212. For example, OS 120 may prevent data in confidential area 212 from being written to a file, a socket, from being source data to another process of OS 120, or from being accessed by another program, such as a debugger.

Alternatively, memory management module 204 may be configured to permit a page with confidential data to be evicted. However, in these instances, OS 120 may then encrypt that page before it is swapped out to storage 1 14. Of course, OS 120 may store the encryption keys for the swapped out confidential page in a protected area of memory 110, such as confidential area 212. As another alternative, OS 120 may place the confidential data in areas of memory 110 that are not directly accessible by bus mastering I/O devices, i.e., devices that can access memory 110 without the assistance of processor 102. By placing confidential in such areas of memory 110 or using hardware assistance when available, memory management module 204 may thus increase the protection of the confidential data from being inadvertently copied to storage 114.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary process flow that is in accordance with the invention. In stage 300, OS 120 receives a request to allocate confidential memory for sensitive data. For example, an application running on OS 120 may request that data be allocated to confidential portion 212 by using a flag, such as MAP_CONFIDENTIAL.

In stage 302, memory management module 204 allocates an area of virtual memory 202 as confidential based on the flag. One skilled in the art will recognize that memory management module 204 may allocate any arbitrary area of memory 110 as holding confidential data based on the flag. In stage 304, memory management module 204 determines if physical memory 110 has space available for confidential portion 212 of virtual memory 202. In stage 306, if space is available, then, in stage 306, memory management module 204 allocates at least some of the available space in memory 110 for confidential portion 212. In some embodiments, if space is not available, then, in stage 308, memory management module 204 may be configured to evict one or more pages from resident data cache 206 or may refuse the request.

In stage 310, OS 120 then protects the confidential portion 212. For example, memory management module 204 may be configured to prevent that page from being evicted to storage 114. For example, in the event of a core dump, memory management module 204 will not dump data from confidential area 212. As another example, memory management module 204 may be configured to skip over data in confidential area 212 when writing data to storage 114 during a transition of system 100 to a power saving mode. OS 120 may also apply other protections to data in confidential area 212. For example, OS 120 may prevent data in confidential area 212 from being written to a file, a socket, from being source data to another process of OS 120, or from being accessed by another program, such as a debugger.

Alternatively, memory management module 204 may be configured to permit a page with confidential data to be evicted. However, in these instances, OS 120 may then encrypt that page before it is swapped out to storage 114. Of course, OS 120 may store the encryption keys for the swapped out confidential page in a protected area of memory 110, such as confidential area 212.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. For example, embodiments of the present invention may be applied to protecting confidential data when systems enter power saving modes. Typically, when entering these types of modes, a system will write the contents of memory 110 to storage device 114. In some embodiments, OS 120 is instead configured to write normal or non-confidential portions of memory 110 to storage 114. However, OS 120 may skip over writing confidential portions of memory 110 and noting which areas of memory 110 were skipped. OS 120 may then determine which processes utilized data in these confidential areas. Thus, when operations resume, OS 120 may provide a warning to indicate that some or all of the confidential portions of memory 110 were not copied to storage 114, or terminate these processes in order to protect the confidential data. One skilled in the art will recognize that other variations may be implemented. 

1. A method of protecting confidential data, said method comprising: receiving a request to allocate space in a virtual memory for confidential data; marking a portion of the virtual memory as confidential; determining if a portion of a physical memory has been assigned for the confidential portion of the virtual memory; and marking the portion of the physical memory that has been assigned for the confidential portion of the virtual memory as having confidential data.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request to allocate confidential space in the virtual memory comprises receiving data that is marked with a flag indicating that it contains confidential data.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining if the physical memory has space available for the confidential portion of virtual memory; and allocating the confidential portion to the physical memory only when space is available in the physical memory.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising preventing the confidential portion stored in the physical memory from being written to a storage device.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprising preventing the confidential portion stored in the physical memory from being written to a socket.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to a storage device during a core dump; and preventing the confidential portion stored in the physical memory from being included in the core dump.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting when contents of the virtual memory are being written to a storage device during a core dump; and preventing the confidential portion of the virtual memory from being included in the core dump.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining when at some of the confidential portion stored in the physical memory has been selected for eviction to a storage device; and encrypting data in the confidential portion prior to eviction to the storage device.
 9. An apparatus comprising means that are configured to perform the method of claim
 1. 10. A computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for performing the method of claim
 1. 11. A method of protecting data allocated to a confidential area of virtual memory that is stored in physical memory, said method comprising: detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to another location; identifying contents of the physical memory that correspond to data allocated to the confidential area of the virtual memory; and protecting the identified contents of the physical memory.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to another location comprises detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to socket.
 13. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to another location comprises detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to a storage device for a core dump.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising preventing the contents of the physical memory that correspond to data allocated to the confidential area of the virtual memory from being written to the storage device during the core dump.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to another location comprises detecting when contents of the physical memory are being written to a storage device for transition into a power-saving mode.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising preventing the contents of the physical memory that correspond to data allocated to the confidential area of the virtual memory from being written to the storage device during the transition into the power-saving mode.
 17. The method of claim 11, wherein protecting the identified contents of the physical memory comprises preventing the identified contents from being written to a storage device.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein protecting the identified contents of the physical memory comprises encrypting the identified contents before they are written to a storage device.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein protecting the identified contents of the physical memory comprises preventing the identified contents from being accessible to a debugger.
 20. The method of claim 11, further comprising providing a warning message when the identified contents have been written another location.
 21. The method of claim 11, wherein protecting the identified contents of the physical memory comprises terminating a process using the identified contents when the process is being suspended.
 22. The method of claim 21, further comprising resuming the process and notifying the process that its identified contents that correspond to data allocated to the confidential area of the virtual memory was discarded during the suspension of the process.
 23. An apparatus comprising means that are configured to perform the method of claim
 11. 24. A computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions for performing the method of claim
 11. 